Two men charged along with former Pontiac City Councilman Everett Seay plead guilty

DETROIT -- Two men charged in U.S. District Court with aiding and abetting former Pontiac City Councilman Everett Seay to commit bribery have pleaded guilty and are scheduled for sentencing in March.

Richard Clanagan, Roscoe Johnson and Seay were indicted on Sept. 17.

Johnson was arraigned Nov. 6 and pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the bribery of a public official, and Clanagan was arraigned Nov. 7 and pleaded guilty to the same charge, according to a U.S. District Court clerk. Both were released on $10,000 personal bonds.

Clanagan, 69, was described at the time of his indictment as a "friend, associate and political advisor of Everett Seay" who has lived in Pontiac, and Johnson, 45, of Detroit, was described as Seay's friend and associate. Their attorneys could not be reached for comment.

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Clanagan's plea agreement said he accepted $6,000 from an undercover FBI agent posing as a drug dealer, with the intention of distributing $3,000 to Seay and $3,000 "to another councilman," indicating the possible involvement of another current or former Pontiac City Council member in the bribery case.

However, the councilman's identity is not being released, as the U.S. Attorney's office in Detroit cannot confirm or deny whether a person is being investigated, said spokeswoman Gina Balaya.

"Defendant thereafter provided about $5,500 of this money to Everett Seay, and kept the remainder for himself and another person," the plea agreement said.

The agreement sets a guideline of 12 to 18 months in prison for Clanagan; the statutory maximum penalty for the bribery charge is 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. Clanagan signed the plea agreement on Sept. 12.

Johnson's plea agreement also was signed Sept. 12 and has the same terms as Clanagan's agreement.

Seay, who is charged in U.S. District Court with conspiracy, bribery, drug conspiracy and trafficking and aiding and abetting a crime, has a new attorney and a January trial date. A not-guilty plea was entered on Seay's behalf at his Sept. 17 arraignment in U.S. District Court in Detroit, and he was released on a $10,000 personal bond.

Seay was initially represented by attorney H. Wallace Parker, who made a motion on Sept. 26 to withdraw from the case, citing a breakdown in the attorney-client relationship and an inability on Seay's part to pay an "agreed-upon retainer fee, or otherwise fund the case." U.S. District Judge Bernard A. Friedman issued an order allowing Parker to withdraw on Oct. 30, and attorney Richard Morgan was appointed as Seay's counsel on Nov. 1.

Parker said in September that the former councilman was set up by a Pontiac businessman who was trying to avoid prosecution against himself on criminal charges by helping law enforcement officials.

The businessman "set upon a course to keep himself out of prison ... by becoming involved with political people in high-profile positions and set up circumstances that (got) him in situations like this," Parker said at the time.

The charges against Seay, 61, who served on council for more than 20 years, carry a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on the bribery charges, and a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years to life in prison and a fine of up to $10 million on the drug-related charges.

According to the federal grand jury indictment, Seay met J.B., an undercover FBI agent posing as a businessman from Chicago in 2008. J.B. needed the city's approval to open a business buying and selling gold, and the undercover agent "indicated to Seay that he was a drug dealer and that the purpose of the business he wanted to establish in Pontiac was to launder proceeds of his unlawful drug business."

An indictment is a charge, and is not evidence of guilt.

Seay solicited bribes totaling about $25,000 in return for assisting J.B. and his associates with getting the city's approval for the gold business, with Clanagan and Johnson assisting and acting as intermediaries, the indictment said.

The undercover agent also asked Seay for assistance in bringing in a shipment of cocaine, placing it in a mini-storage unit and having it transported to an airplane to be flown out, and gave Seay a $1,000 deposit, according to the indictment.

The men discussed using a car with a Michigan municipal license plate to transport the cocaine to the airport, the indictment said.

Seay and Johnson drove with undercover FBI agents to a storage facility and transported 16 kilos of fake cocaine to the Oakland County International Airport, where they transferred the imitation drugs into an airplane. An undercover agent paid Seay $14,000 afterward for his and Johnson's help, the indictment said.

Attorney Parker said in September that the money was a contribution to Seay's mayoral campaign, and that Seay thought what was being flown out was gold, not cocaine.